THANK YOU!

(I apologize for the delay)

You can ask anyone who knows me, I am not often rendered speechless. Even if I can't think of something incredibly witty and charming to say I can inject an enthusiastic "Dude!" or "Whoa!"

When I spoke with Denise a day or so before the event, she told me there was going to be about 12 volunteers and 7 dogs working the crowd. I will admit that I was a little disappointed. I knew this was such an amazing opportunity to network and schmooze and I had hoped there would be more. But I didn't let it bother me...I just knew those folks and doggies were gonna have to "work" it hard all day.

As I turned the corner right before mile 26, I saw Julie Wright and Ewin (well I saw their goldens first!). And I got really excited. They then started running to the others to let them know I was coming....or at least that is what I HOPED they were doing! I didn't think they were quite the type to taunt me with "See? We're faster than YOU are!! Neener Neener Neener!!!!"

When I passed the group I saw quite a few volunteers and quite a few dogs....but I will admit I was in a bit of a haze at that point. Everything seemed a bit distorted especially the distance to the finish line...as I've said people often forget the Point 2 of the 26.2 but those last .2 miles were excrutiatingly long! It could have actually been 1 dog and 1 volunteer with my vision and brain playing serious tricks on me.

Julie V. and Elaine and Kate (Or at least I thought it was Kate...if it wasn't I apologize!) greeted me and Elaine walked with me to the booth, which was quite a distance (probably only about 50 yards but it felt longer!) I see Julie and Ewin with their 2 beautiful goldens and just got the best feeling. I know I'm biased but seeing beautiful goldens after a run is just the best way to restore. I then see The Guru and Beth with their doggies, Comet and Daisy. I got hugs from all 4 and when I looked over Beth's shoulder, I saw the booth. My breath caught in my throat and tears came to my eyes. The booth was PACKED! I saw so many wonderful volunteers and so many goldens and I imagined harps playing and angels singing because this was heaven!!!!

Denise told me, and of course I saw the pictures later of all the volunteers and the 16!!!!! beautiful goldens that were there throughout the day. I'm told that we were the most popular booth in the festival, that there were lines of folks wanting to pet the goldens. I know that Denise has thanked those wonderful folks who helped make this an extraordinarily successful event but I would like to thank them again.

Thank you so much:
Jan, Cecily, Jo, Diane, Kriss, Patricia, Cindy, Tom, Tina, Mary, Jessica, Linda, Eva, Joanne, Elaine, Julie, Sandra, Kate, Joan, Ed, Bobby, Beth, Colleen, Denise, Paul, Cameron, Garrett, Tom, Nestor, Jennifer, Dan, Julie, Ewin, Cindy, Bruce, Pam, Carole and Ron.

Without you folks, this would not have been as successful as it was. I am truly blessed to know all of you.

I especially would like to thank Eva, Joanne and Elaine for going above and beyond in helping us get the booth set up. They rented a hotel room to make sure they would be there early on race day and I just can't thank them enough.

I would like to thank all of you who helped to raise money for this amazing organization.

I would like to thank all the folks who picked us as their charity of choice. Last year we had 41 participants racing on our team. This year we had 66!

I would like to thank Mr. Art Seagren who gave us a superb piece of real estate at the festival. Our location right next to the entrance/exit made us highly visible and was a big part of our success.

And Denise. Oh Denise. Thank you for making the finish line festival booth what it was. Thank you for taking on the responsibility of calming my butt down when I would be freaking out about, well, everything. I'm sure there were times when you REALLY didn't want to take my phone calls, but you did and I appreciate that more than you know. Thank you for being my friend.

Thank you Mr. Marty Friedman, Marathon Guru for all of your help and encouragement. You have become a great friend and I once again couldn't have finished without you.

It's funny, I hadn't been finished with the marathon for 3 minutes before I started getting asked if I would run again next year. Probably because last year, I was insane enough to say yes right away. This year, I was like "I don't know....THAT would be CRAZY!"

My goal this year was to finish in under 5 hours. I didn't come close to that and I will admit that I am a little disappointed with my time. I thought I was prepared and honestly, I wasn't. I didn't train nearly as hard as I should have to achieve that goal.

In the few days since this year's race, I decided that finishing in under 5 hours is a goal that is important to me. So instead of training to finish in the 5 months before next year's race, I will train for speed starting November 17th (Guru says to wait a month before I start training for speed).

So to answer the question you are all wondering.....

YES! I WILL BE RUNNING AGAIN NEXT YEAR.

I hope that you all will be there too!!

Thanks again everyone and PEACE OUT!!!

READY?

So the marathon is in less than 24 hours.

I am as ready as I'm gonna get!

I have siphoned as much knowledge as I could from the Marathon Guru. (Don't worry, I left him a few brain cells to rub together!)

I have my geek-cessories packed and ready to go.

I have my gaggle of kleenex ready to catch the real runner in my family (my nose!)

I will shave my legs to make me more aerodynamic!

I will eat carbs tonight to give me energy.

I fought off the cold that threatened last weekend thanks to vitamins and witch potions.

My bib # is 889

We are almost to our fundraising goal! Even if we don't make the $26,200 (everyone always forgets that POINT 2) we raised a significant amount of moolah for the wonderful goldens! WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!

Thanks Everyone, for everything. I'm so proud of all of you and honored to be a part of this organization!

Peace Out!

LETTER TO MOTHER NATURE

YO MAMA!

I know that you are really busy having your way with us. You know...messin' with the thermostat. I mean come ON Mama, 118 degrees!!! And then going from record breaking highs one week to dumping rain on us the next?! Are you trying to get us all sick? Did the Tooth Fairy tick you off again? The Easter Bunny steal all of your eggs and hard boil the bejeezus out of 'em? Take is easy, Sweetie. Have a massage. Drink a martini. All will be fine.

So there are only 2 more weeks until the marathon and I have a few requests. I know that Pops (Santa) usually takes care of these things but I don't think he reads his letters until December and that you know, would be too late.

So, if you could please get all of your weather shenanigans out of your system BEFORE race day that would be swell. I request a nice 70 degree, clear beautiful day for the 17th.

I don't know how tight you are with the traffic gods but if you could ask them to make it easy for anyone coming to Long Beach as part of the most bestest Golden Retriever Rescue EVER, that would be really nice. Tell them we'll bake them cookies or at least bestow numerous wet golden kisses on them if they do!

Is there some way you could attach, like, invisible turbo chargers to me heels? I mean nothing that requires rocket fuel. I don't think anyone would believe it if I finished in 5 minutes. I'm talking under 5 hours...even if only by a minute. That would be great.

So I know that this is asking a lot. But if you could grant these requests I promise to eat my vegetables...I'll even clean my room!

PPPPPPLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSE MAMA?

Thanks MAMA NATURE!! You're the BEST!

Be well!

SELECTIVE RETENTION

Where does the time go?!?

There is less than 5 weeks to go until race day! YIKE-EEEEE!

Training has been going about as well as can be expected. My long distance runs are up to 20 miles. My feet hurt. My back hurts. My brain hurts....but all in all I'm doing pretty well!

I have never given birth but I liken my total lunacy of doing this again to Mothers who have more than one child. I'm told that if women remembered how painful giving birth was, no one would have more than one kid! Selective Retention.

All I remember about last year is what a wonderful feeling it was to cross the finish line. And to have people that I admire and respect waiting for me there. I forgot about the pain each long run generated as I prepared for the big day. I forgot about my inability to gracefully climb stairs after a long run or in fact my difficulty in just plain walkin' without looking like I'm 142 years old desperately looking for a railing to hold on to to keep me upright. Or how funny I must look holding on to the vanity for dear life as I VERRRY SLOWWWWLY lift one violently trembling leg into the pants I have positioned perfectly on the floor so that I don't have to lift my leg more than a few inches. Then switching arms to balance as I shakily lift the other leg into the other leg hole. And when I have successfully gotten my legs into their correct pants-puttin'-on-position, I wish with all my being that I had The Force with me to lift those pants to their proper place on my behind so that I wouldn't have to bend over to do it myself! Selective Retention.

And speaking of pain and Mothers.......

I poke fun that no one reads this blog. 2.2 readers I've joked. Well, my very own Mother admitted to me that she doesn't read it. MY VERY OWN MOTHER!!! I feel like a red-headed step child. She doesn't read my blog!?!?! So here is a picture of her in a bathing suit....that'll teach her!!! Doesn't read my blog.......

Be well everyone!

TECHNOLOGY

It's crazy to think how far we humans have come. Remember cassette tapes? Beta and VHS players? Floppy disks? The cool drive-up bank tubes that you placed into a slot that then got suctioned to the teller? Toilets that you had to flush yourself?

I remember how cool it was to get call waiting on our home phone. Now, most people don't even have home phones because cell phones have taken over.

And gone are the days of a cell phone that just makes calls. Now you can listen to music, take pictures and video, surf the web and cook dinner.

Amazing if you think about it. And new stuff keeps zooming up every day! You buy the newest, coolest ninjaist Cyborg Zomboid (or whatever) phone and you get home, finally figure out how to get the stupid thing to work and BOOM! They announce that version 2.0001 is coming out next week and it is sooooo much better than the old geezer phone you bought today and that you should rush right out next week and buy the new better version for $1000 bucks. I mean really....

But if you ARE one of those who is gaga for gizmos, you probably have A LOT of phones laying around collecting dust. Know what you should do with them? Give them to us!!! The GRCGLARescue will receive anywhere from $5-$100 for your used cell phones! The more recent the model, the more we get, so come on Seeker-of-the-new, give us your phones!!!!

And for those of you who are the exact opposite and have had the same cell phone since LiLo had a career, maybe its time to upgrade and then give us your old one.

But don't keep this to yourself!!! Ask friends, family, neighbors. Ask co-workers. Have a Comm department at your work? Ask them for any used phones!! One of our volunteers even went to a wireless store and asked for their trade-ins and got a bunch!! This is easy money! And the best part? All proceeds are going to Team Bethany and will help us reach our $1000 a mile goal. And the even bester part? Those funds WILL BE MATCHED BY OUR WONDERFUL A.D.!!!!!

So I'm gonna go round me up some phones. The list of locations where you can drop your phones off is listed on our site or you can go here: http://www.grcglarescue.org/RP_WebDoc.asp?ttid=295

When I get home tonight, I'm gonna watch a VHS movie on an analog TV with no remote, while listening to my Walkman and talking to my Mom on my rotary dial phone (yes...I'm a multi-tasker!)

What movie you ask? I'm thinking E.T. That movie is one that could never be remade because nowadays, E.T. could phone home quite easily. But he would definitely get hit with some serious roaming charges!!!!

Be well everyone.

Peace Out

SERIOUS TIME WITH BETHANY (not to be confused with nappy poo time with Bethany...that's later)

HOPE...Hope. Say the word out loud. What do you think?

It's not really a pretty word as just a word, if you think about it.

HOPE

It rhymes with dope and scope and mope and grope. All not really great words (although grope can be good if it's from someone yummy and dope is turning it's image around and can be used to describe things that are good...like "Man, that song is dope!" (Unless it's rap then its just dopey...but I digress).

HOPE

What makes hope beautiful is its meaning. Hope is the thing that we all have and I think its one of the things that makes us wake up everyday and do the things we do. We hope for health. We hope for love. We hope for success. We hope that the Bears win the Super Bowl (some things we hope for are easier to come by than others)!

HOPE

I have adopted 2 wonderful dogs through this amazing Rescue. As the 2.2 of you who read this blog know, my first doggy was Summer. One of her many nicknames was Snarky Barker because she was a bit cranky towards other dogs. Because of her age and her snarkiness, she wasn't an easy placement. She was in a boarding facility on behalf of Rescue for over a month until the dog (god spelled backwards) genie granted my wish to adopt my sweet Baby Sums.

HOPE

I have said in the past that I am a bit obsessive. And although I joke about it...it is entirely true. I look at our available dogs page almost every day. So I'm usually aware of the dogs that are on our site for long periods of time and worry much more about them when they need a foster home. I knew my dog Sweetness, who was Boston on our site, was available for a long time. He needed a foster home almost the entire time.

HOPE

Sweetness is deathly afraid of other dogs. And I'm not talking slightly afraid. I am talking extreme, blinding, crazy terror. It makes me sad when I think about him living in a place where every moment of every day, he spent in fear for his life. Are any of you deathly afraid of something? I mean paralyzingly fearful? Sweetness lived surrounded by the thing that scares him more than anything on this planet for OVER TWO MONTHS!

Although I wasn't ready to adopt another dog so soon after Summer, Sandy told me that Sweetness (Boston) was growing older by the day...almost unrecognizable from the day he was brought in to Rescue. In tears and sobbing, I told Sandy that I would pick him up that Saturday as a foster only. Of course, I failed miserably!

HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE™

Because of my two babies, the Hope for a Better Life™ program means a lot to me. Because of their need to be an only dog, Summer and Sweetness spent over 90 days total in boarding. 90 DAYS! At $18 a day, boarding Sweetness and Baby Sums until they were adopted cost Rescue over $1620!!!!! And they still came to me Snarky and Fraidy!!! I can only imagine how Sweetness in particular could have benefited from the Wags N Wiggles 4-week residential training program. And how better spent that boarding money could have been to help him get better. I know that things happen for a reason and I love him so much and can't imagine life without him, but I would rather have not had him in my life if he could have gotten out of Boston Hell sooner.

HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE™

The GRCGLA Rescue now has a program that can help other dogs that come in to our organization with fear and/or aggression issues. Goldens that would have otherwise been euthanized because they were unadoptable due to their behavior challenges now have HOPE! Because of the GRCGLA Rescue's Hope for a Better Life™ Program these dogs will get a second chance to be loved and cherished. They will (hopefully) learn through this amazing program that whatever was done to them to make them afraid is in the past, and nothing but love and obsessive devotion is in store for them in the future.

HOPE FOR A BETTER LIFE™

Of course, amazing programs need funding. I am just flabbergasted that an Anonymous Donor has offered to MATCH EVERY DOLLAR DONATED TO TEAM BETHANY to go to the Hope for a Better Life™ Program. EVERY DOLLAR! So that means if you donate $10, its actually............$20! (Sorry, had to take my shoes off for that one!) $100 is $200! $500 is $1000! 1 BILLION is...well I don't think the A.D. would match a billion but I got a little carried away!

I'm wondering why this A.D. wants to be anonymous. I would love to meet them and give them a big old hug and smooch! Sweetness says that maybe they are germaphobic and wouldn't want a kiss from me. I tell him that WHO WOULDN'T want a smooch from ME!?!?!

Then Sweetness says that maybe its a corporation, a huge conglomerate and I would have to give out A LOT of smooches and that would take up time that I should be running and I tell him....good point.

So, A.D. whomever you are, thank you for this amazing gift. YOU ARE HOPE to so many Goldens. I HOPE you know how much your very, incredibly generous matching gift donations are appreciated by us all!

Now...as promised....it's NAPPY POO TIME!

BE WELL EVERYONE!!!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY

I hope all of you Daddies out there had a wonderful day with your peeps and pups!

So my training begins tomorrow.  Don't get me wrong, I have been running for months now.  But actual full-on, no excuses, get-off-the-velcro-couch training starts tomorrow.  I'm tired just thinking about it!!!

The good part of training is I DO get to eat pretty much anything I want.  When you run progressively increasing miles 5 days a week, you burn A LOT of calories. 

Last year I swore off candy, cocktails and ice cream.  This year, I'm only gonna do candy and ice cream.  I decided giving up cocktails was a tad too extreme!  You don't want me going completely coo coo, do you?  I blame the lack of consumption of alcohol to my saying that I would do this again so shortly after I finished the first one!  Coo Coo for cocoa puffs, I tell ya!

So I'm gonna go enjoy my last day of freedom.  Maybe go to Cold Stone, get a scoop of ice cream, with candy on top.  Go freeze my brain...maybe when it thaws I will have come to my senses.

Be well and Peace Out!

ARE YOU INSPIRED?

 As I started my run around the country club today, a group of cyclists passed me going the opposite direction.  This in and of itself is not an unusual site.  There are a lot of bike clubs in this area that use San Vicente and the West side as their playground.

But as I continue I see more and more cyclists.  Like Hundreds.  I go about halfway around the country club when I see a sign.  The Aids/LifeCycle San Francisco to Los Angeles Bike-a-thon.  It is a 7 day, 575 mile bike ride to raise money to help (hopefully) end Aids.

There were cyclists who were wearing mohawks on their helmets in every shade.  Rainbow 'hawks and neon 'hawks.  There were some that had stuffed animals or feathers or bright red afros attached to their helmets.  Others had squeaky toys that they squeezed throughout the ride.  Some had what I'm guessing were heavy duty pipe cleaners sticking out...kinda making 'em look like lighting bolts coming from their heads, and my favorite...a PLANT!

Some were dressed in crazy outfits.  I saw a lion and a tiger and a bear (oh my).  I saw a man with so much cra....stuff on him that he looked like a pinata.  I saw a man in a riding outfit made to look like a tuxedo.  It was fun to watch as they passed me by.

When I was running the marathon last year, it surprised me how much some stranger saying "great job" helped keep me going.  So I thought it only fair to pay it forward.  I would only see them on part of my route, but every time I was on San Vicente, I would clap and shout "good job" and "way to go" while giving a thumbs up.

Since I was running and chewing gum, I was taking a great risk trying to shout and clap and thumb at the same time!  I only stumbled once...providing comic relief to those tired riders.

Not only was it amazing to see literally hundreds and hundreds of cyclists riding for a great cause, but it was amazing that I got a couple of cat calls, whistles and a, "Daaaamn, baby!!"  even though I wasn't at my most attractive.  My boyfriend doesn't have to worry though, they were all from women!

It was an inspiring run for me.  It made me think how great it would be to some day have hundreds of people running to help our goldens.  I just checked their website and they raised over 11 million bucks!  Can you imagine?

So I'm hoping that you all are inspired to get out there and train for any of the Long Beach events, or inspired to get signed up and become our number one fundraiser!  The marathon is 18 weeks from tomorrow (YIKES!).  We can do this!  And although we might not get close to 11 million $28,000 is a completely obtainable goal!  (the leading fundraiser for AIDS/LifeCycle has raised over $52,000!  If any of you raise that much, you can have as big a portrait as you want!!!!)

Get Inspired, Be well and Peace out!

CHALLENGES

So last year, I put forth a challenge to all of you to eat lots of ice cream. ICE CREAM! The only condition was for every scoop, you put a buck into a jar and give it to Rescue.

To put it nicely, you guys TOTALLY sucked!

The only reason we got any Scoops donations was Sandy walked around Dogtoberfest and GUILTED those of you who were there and had cash left to give it over!

So this year, I am putting forth another challenge and this time, since you all are challenge CHALLENGED, it's an easy one. (Although people, I thought eating ice cream was pretty darned easy...and yummy!)

I am challenging all of you to be the top fundraiser for the GRCGLA Rescue through active.com!!!!!!!!!

If you go to http://www.active.com/donate/GRCGLARescue2010, you will be taken to our fundraising page. At the top is says "become a fundraiser".

You can sign up to fund raise EVEN IF YOU DON'T PARTICIPATE IN ANY EVENT!

You can post a picture of your favorite golden baby and say why you love the breed and why you are raising money to help our wonderful baby goldens! (If you have any questions, let me know)

Then you can send it to every single person you know and ask them to help YOU win!

And what will you win?
The winner will get 2, yes TWO 4"x4" pet portraits done in oil, done by yours truly.**

With her permission, here are portraits commissioned by Rescue's own Jo B:

If you are a super duper spectacular fundraiser...and I mean WICKED, NINJA GOOD (I'm talkin' at least $2500) we can discuss one bigger one.

So folks, are you up for the challenge?

Be well and get busy!!

**I paint from your original photos. Originals will need to be approved by me. Close up photos work the best.

The Marathon Guru

As most of you know, Marty Friedman, aka, The Marathon Guru, aka, MG, aka, G, aka, The Slave Driver, played a very important role in helping me get trained for last year's marathon.  I should probably add Attila and Crazy Man to the list because not only has he once again offered to crack the whip on me but he has told me he will help any of YOU that are interested in milking him dry of expertise!

I will warn you in advance that he is very serious about running and he has no problem telling you that you are a total and complete slacker...if you are!

But all kidding aside, G has a plethora (ooh ooh...one of my favorite words!) of information that is helpful to any runner, whether a newbie or someone who can make it around the block.  If nothing else, he has proven to be a great motivator (Get movin' Lead Legs!)

So if you have any questions for Marty, you can email him at the following address: mjfriedman2@verizon.net

I know that he takes Hershey's Kisses and Reese's Peanut Butter cups as payment.

Be Well Everyone!

Happy Mother's Day

I hope that all of you people mommies and doggie mommies had a wonderful Mother's Day!

I have had a few people ask me how the half marathon went...proving that no one is reading this!

And that's ok.... since no one reads this thing...I thought I would give poetry a try:

The sky is blue
the grass is green
I'm really glad I have my spleen

My knees don't knock
my eyes don't cross
Sweetness thinks he's the boss

My eyes are green
my hair is short
Football is my favorite sport

I hate my neighbor
his name is Michael
I wish I could ram him with my cycle

I love Goldens
I love cheese
Give me lots of both please

Some say I'm weird
Some say I'm quirky
Too much caffeine makes me jerky

I could go on...But I won't.

I will save the rest for the next time I feel like no one is reading this thing.

YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

TOENAILS and BLISTERS and CRAMPS OH MY!!!!!

So I will admit that I became somewhat of a slacker after the marathon. OK. A TOTAL SLACKER after the marathon. I would run, if I was lucky, MAYBE once a week. (I DID go to the gym.......twice)

At first, it was because I was sick and had a gnarly pulled muscle in my groin.

Then..it got really COLD! I really don't like running in the cold (I know...totally lame excuse!)

But I am happy to say that I am once again back to training and I gotta tell ya, my body is REVOLTING! (I know...I'm settin' myself up on that one!)

The toenail that got all icky was finally growing back nicely. It has already started to get all funky again...and this time it's bringing my big toe along with it!

No matter how much I spend on good shoes and socks that wick. No matter how much Vaseline I slather on, I get blisters. Big, yucky painful blisters. I believe that blisters are my body's way of getting back at me for all that it knows I'm gonna put it through for the next 5 and a half months.

On top of sore toes, fire breathing blisters and knees and ankles that are asking me "Are you SURE you want to do this again? We did this once already...we didn't much like it the first time!", I keep getting cramps when I'm running too! Nothing serious...just my body trying to "talk" me out of doing this again...personally, I think this is another way my body is forging a coup against training.

So I'd say I have been running seriously for about 3 weeks. I had planned on doing a half marathon this coming weekend. I knew that I hadn't been training long enough to do it so I told The Guru that I was gonna run a lot this week to get ready. He said NO! NO! NO! Go in under-trained. Well, I went against the Guru's advice (Blasphemy, I KNOW!) and ran a 9 mile long run on Saturday. Well it might has well have been 90 miles! I was so tired! My legs were like mush.

So I am rethinking the half marathon this weekend. I don't want to do anything that will set me back on the big picture! But this has been a much needed wake up call that it's time to get serious!

I hope that you all have at least started your training. Whether it be for running, walking or biking. If you haven't, IT'S NOT TOO LATE! Start now and we can get revolting bodies together!

And if your body says: "No way, Jose" or "Au contraire, mon frère" or "You are out of your FRICKIN' MIND, Homey", Just remember, we are doing it for the DOGS!!

Be well everyone and here we go again!!!!

Click here for a downloadable flyer to print and distribute.

Race Day is OCTOBER 17th 2010

Hello All!

I am pleased to announce that our Rescue is once again an official charity of the Long Beach Marathon!

MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!!

Race Day is OCTOBER 17th 2010

Do you think we can exceed last year's totals in every possible way? Do you think we can get a full-on Team to participate in whichever race?  Do you think I can finish in 5 hours without dying?!

I think we can!  On every level, we now know what to expect and I think we can blow last year out of the water!

So I hope that you all started your training.  If not, it is definitely not too late to start training for any of the races.  Just to let you know there is the Full and Half Marathon, biking the course and a 5k.  You can walk it too!

We will once again need at least 20 participants for any of the races (we had 40 last year...a lot that we did not even know!!)  and 20 volunteers to work the expo or work on race day.  This is completely separate from the volunteers we will need for our finish line festival tent area.

Of course I will have more info as it we get closer to the race, but put it in your calendars now because I want there to be so many of us and our beautiful goldens that we will be the talk of the day!  We can all wear cool, matching shirts!

Be well everyone and IT'S TIME TO START RUNNING!! (from the movie "Running Man" with our governor and Richard Dawson.  In the movie, contestants have to run for their lives for a game show.  If you need motivation, just think: You won't be running to save YOUR life, you will be running (or walking or biking or volunteering) to save the lives of our baby Goldens!!!)